
Along Highway 60 near Northeast of Globe, Arizona there are remote forests that surround the road. Cacti, prickly pears, and other desert shrubs litter the floors of the forest and create a desert-like oasis. Among the cacti, hidden in the desolate forest, a young girl’s dismembered remains were found in black trash bags on February 14, 2025. Her name was Emily Pike. One Hundred miles from the last place Emily Pike was seen alive, near mile marker 277, the 14 year old girl was found 1 month after being reported missing. Hers is just one horrific tale in a long timeline of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls.
Generations of Indigenous people have been subjected to perpetual cycles of abuse. Statistically, Native Americans and Alaska Natives are more likely to experiences higher rates of murder, rape, and violent crimes compared to the rest of the United States, with violence rates on reservations being ten times higher than the national average. Along with that, there aren’t reliable records of how many Native American women go missing and/or murdered each year. This is a violation of Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which states that no person should be subject to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.
In 2016, 5,712 American Indian and Alaska Native women and girls were reported missing by the National Crime Information Center. Out of the 5,712 cases, only 116 were recorded in the U.S. Department of Justice’s federal missing persons cases. Just in the year 2023, 5,800 Indigenous women –74 percent of them children– were missing. Article 7 of the UDHR states that all are entitled to equal protection of the law without discrimination and should be considered equal before the law. The third leading cause of death for Indigenous women and girls is homicide.
The dead can see red. This is a belief held by many Native Americans. For many years, a red hand has represented a connection from the spirit world over to the physical world. Now, a red handprint across the mouth has come to symbolize the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) movement. For this blog, I will examine the timeline of Emily Pike’s death, the other children that ran away from Sacred Journey Inc. group home, and the introduction of Arizona House Bill (HB) 2281, which would create an alert system that would notify when an indigenous person goes missing.
Emily Pike’s Missing and Murder Case:

First and foremost, she was known for her smile. Family members and staff at the Sacred Journey Inc. have commented on her bubbly personality and how she was always quick with a smile. Emily Pike was a young Native American girl and a member of the San Carlos Apache Tribe. She grew up with her cousins, brother, mother, and grandmother on a reservation. After she was hospitalized due to self-harm, she was placed at Sacred Journey Inc. by the San Carlos Apache Tribe’s Social Services Department in September of 2023. The Sacred Journey Inc. is a group home for girls ages 7-18.
On September 11, 2023, Emily Pike and another child were reported missing by the group home. The girls had escaped through their bedroom window after staff administered their medication. There was no surveillance footage of the girls leaving; however, they were later found at Kleinman Park. The girls told police that they were forced to scrub baseboards, walls, and windowsills at Sacred Journey Inc. They also mentioned that they would have to get on their hands and knees to scrub the tiles. It was reported that one of the girls said she would just escape again if they took her back. Both girls were returned.
Nine days later, on September 20, 2023, Emily Pike was reported missing. An officer later found her out walking, and Emily stated that the staff would argue with the other young girls at the home, which made her uncomfortable. She did not want to return to the group home. Emily was sent to a mental health facility to get an evaluation at Mind 24/7. After the evaluation, she was returned to Sacred Journey Inc.
On October 31, 2023, the group home’s staff reported at 6:36 PM that Emily had run away again. At 9:15 PM the home called the police again to let them know that Emily had returned. Staff said there was no need for immediate medical attention and monitored her throughout the night.
Emily Pike ran away from the group home for the last time on January 27, 2025. Pike was reported missing to police by 8:19 PM and was last seen on an intersection near Mesa Drive and McKellips Road. Staff members reported that Pike was on medication for her behavioral and mental health issues. Two days later, on January 29th, a statewide missing person bulletin was issued for Emily Pike. Throughout the first week of February, there were multiple voice messages to police and the group home stating that Emily Pike was with her mother on the San Carlos Apache reservation. These claims were proven false after communication with Pike’s mother.
There is a trail near mile marker 277 of Highway 60 northeast of Globe, AZ. On February 14, 2025, suspicious black trash bags were found on the trail by a group of people. The two trash bags contained the remains of Emily Pike, around 100 miles from the last place she was seen alive. Emily Pike was finally found after a month of being missing. Police say she was most likely murdered at a different location and later placed on the trail near Highway 60. An autopsy could not reveal what the cause of death was.
What About the Other Missing Children?

The San Carlos Apache tribe has called for an investigation into Sacred Journey Inc. and the other 30 children that have gone missing from this group home in the past three years before, according to the group home’s operator, Elizabeth Morales, eventually being found. Along with that, they are pushing for state-licensed residential children group homes to have stricter regulations. After Emily Pike went missing and was murdered shortly afterwards, the tribe has put more pressure on state leaders to make change.
Emily Pike was reported four times for running away before she was murdered. Each time it was thought that she left through her window. There was never any security footage of her leaving, and it is unknown if any further security methods were put into place after the first three times Pike ran away. In addition to Emily Pike, Veronica Cruz is another young girl who went missing from the Sacred Journey Inc. group home. On May 18, 2024, 17-year-old Veronica Cruz went missing around 5:00 PM. and was not found for almost a year, at which point she was said to have reunited with her family. The Mesa Police Department has yet to verify this.
The group home’s operator, Elizabeth Morales, commented that the other 30 children that had gone missing were accounted for and that children often ran away, but were always found. That was, until Emily Pike.
Arizona House Bill 2281:

On March 21, 2025 the San Carlos Apache tribe sent a letter to the Arizona legislature, urging them to pass House Bill (HB) 2281. This house bill would establish a Missing Indigenous Person Alert System. The alert system would immediately send out a notification as soon as an indigenous person is reported missing. This system would be similar to an Amber Alert system. An alert system like this would be extremely useful, as there is not a current system in place that keeps an accurate track of how many indigenous people go missing every year.
The San Carlos Apache tribe also stated that they are offering a reward of $75,000 for any information that leads to the arrest and conviction of Emily Pike’s murderer. Along with the reward they called for an investigation into the group home regarding their safety measures. Why have over 30 residents gone missing from the Sacred Journey Inc.? What safety measures has the group home taken to ensure that their residents are safe? These are questions that need to be answered so that no other child is hurt.
Conclusion:
Emily Pike’s murderer(s) have yet to be found. The case is still in the early stages, and it is important that her story is not forgotten. Too many indigenous people go missing and/or murdered every year. The violence that indigenous people, women and girls in particular, experience is at an alarmingly high rate. To read more about the violence that indigenous women experience and the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) movement, read Maya Crocker’s blog post Our Lost Indigenous Women. To read more about how Black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) women receive disproportionately less media coverage than white women when they are missing, check out Mary Bailey’s blog post How Black and Indigenous Women are Detrimentally Affected by ‘Missing White Woman Syndrome’ and Arshnoor Grewal’s blog post The Missing Case of Gabby Petito and the Cases of Missing Indigenous Women.
If you would like to see Emily Pike’s crime timeline, check out Case Files for Missing and Endangered. Emily Pike’s death is a travesty, and more attention is needed on all the unsolved cases of indigenous women who are missing and/or murdered. As for Emily Pike, until her murderer(s) are found, tried, and convicted, her name should be spread far and wide.